The Shame of College Sports

[kotchishm]

Really interesting article thought I'd post it.  Long read but it's worth it.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/1/

[Ruckus]

Thanks for posting that article kotch.  It had some wonderful nuggets in it but I feel like it got stuck between an academic paper and an op/ed piece if that makes any sense and started getting sidetracked.  What was clearly an attempt to expose the NCAA for the farce that it is, it became convoluted when I was trying to discern what the key argument was.  Was it defining "amateurism", NCAA's non-monopoly status (antitrust exemption), actual legitimacy, regulation enforcement processes, etc.?  That said, it covered a lot of ground and I appreciated the learned commentary below with great insight from many of the readers.

To me, the NCAA has always been a farce and it will be curious to see the effect that the conference realignments have on the power of the NCAA in football.  Without getting long winded, though college athletes deserve to be compensated, there will never be an acceptable way to do it.  A flat stipend doesn't value individuals properly and you don't want schools bidding out in the open for players.  Allowing a portion of merchandising is a possibility but really the only answer is to end the collusion between the NBA and NFL with the NCAA.  In soccer, tennis, baseball, hockey, golf, any individual has the ability to earn their market value when they choose.  The NFL and NBA effectively have a domestic monopoly on the professional basketball and football markets so they conveniently use the NCAA as it's well funded developmental program.  If the age restrictions are lifted, at least the top players have an option to earn their market value instead of feeling obligated to sell their wares to a university.

Unfortunately, the latest legal ruling on this I believe was the Clarett case in which the courts did not even have to examine whether the NFL indeed was a monopoly using the labor exemption in antitrust law.  Since the rule was collective bargained (and policy favors labor law over antitrust law), the rule stands.  Clarett didn't have standing to challenge because he was never a party in the collective bargaining agreement.

I don't know what the answer is but I am all for American high schoolers taking money to go play overseas at 16 or 17. 

EDIT: If and when this all collapses, how will these players get paid.  Under the table with no more NCAA oversight?  Professional leagues made up of universities?

[Ruckus]

Ahh yes!  I forgot about this nugget!  In the middle of this dense article comes,

"Although discharged from the Army during World War II for defective vision, Byers was able to see an opportunity in two contemporaneous scandals."
;D ::)